University of Luxembourg , Walferdange, Luxembourg .
Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2013 Oct;16(10):774-8. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2012.0695. Epub 2013 Jun 7.
Recent findings indicate that events in video games, as well as players' perceptions of game characters, moderate well-established video game effects. This includes the level of identification with game characters, and players' interpretation of whether or not the actions of the characters are conceived as moral. In the present study, it was tested whether manipulating empathy for well-known game characters influences video game effects in a violent beat-'em-up game. As was expected, playing the comic hero Superman led to more prosocial behavior (i.e., returning a lost letter) than playing the evil villain Joker. A similar positive effect was observed for inducing game characters as warm and empathic before playing. Compared to a neutral text, participants in the empathy text condition judged the violence in the game as less justified, irrespective of game character. When looking at hostile perception, an interaction was found between empathy and game character. For Superman, empathy led participants to interpret neutral faces as less aggressive. When playing the evil Joker, however, empathy even increased hostile perception. This is in line with previous findings that empathy may not be positive per se. In fact, it may backfire depending on the interaction of game characters and the empathy players feel for them.
最近的研究结果表明，电子游戏中的事件以及玩家对游戏角色的看法，会影响到已确立的电子游戏效果。这包括玩家对游戏角色的认同程度，以及他们对角色行为是否被视为道德的解释。在本研究中，我们测试了操纵对知名游戏角色的同理心是否会影响暴力格斗游戏中的电子游戏效果。正如预期的那样，与扮演邪恶反派小丑相比，扮演漫画英雄超人会导致更多的亲社会行为（例如，归还丢失的信件）。在玩游戏之前，将游戏角色塑造得温暖和富有同理心也会产生类似的积极效果。与中性文本相比，在同理心文本条件下的参与者认为游戏中的暴力行为更不合理，而与游戏角色无关。当观察敌对感知时，发现同理心和游戏角色之间存在交互作用。对于超人来说，同理心使参与者将中性面孔解读为不那么具有攻击性。然而，当扮演邪恶的小丑时，同理心甚至会增加敌对感知。这与之前的研究结果一致，即同理心本身可能并不一定是积极的。事实上，它可能会适得其反，具体取决于游戏角色和玩家对他们的同理心的相互作用。
